Airplane wing



May 10, 1932. .1. TETLow AIRPLANE WING Original Filed Aug. 19, 1929 WN N M l l mL @W 4 Patented May 10, 1932 PATENT QFFHCE LEWIS J TETLOW, OF HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS AIRPLAN WIN G Original application led August 19, 1929, Serial No. 386,925. Divided and this application filed March 28,

1930. Serial No. 439,783.

be manufactured at low cost and in such del sign that the wing may be readily assembled.

A further object of. the invention lies in. the provision of means whereby the. two wlngs may be removed as a single unit from the 1o fuselage or if desired either wing may be removed alone without disturbing the other wing.

Still further objects of the invention relate to details of construction of the individual members which go to make up the truss formation which supports the fabric covering.

This application is a division of my earlier application Serial Number 386,925, iled August 19, 1929.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the two wings, one being shown only in part and. the other being shown with the covering fabric removed in order that the details may be better understood.

Figure 2 is a cross section on line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical section taken thru the seat and a portion of each wing.

Figure 4 is an elevation showing one tie rod and its adjustable connection to the landing gear.

The framework or skeleton of the wing is made up of two end castings 11. and12, and spaced spars 14 and 15 which are flat bars with their wider sides vertically disposed, preferably of steel or of some stronger material, these two spars being bolted as at 17 at their opposite ends to lugs 18 extending inwardly from each of the end castings. I also prefer that the ends of these spars 14-and 15 shall fit snugly into slots or kerfs' 19 in the end pieces. The fore-and-aft ribs which join the spars 14 and 15 at intervals are preferably 5 stampings and of some light material such as aluminum or some of the stronger alloys of that metal. These ribs are composed of two identical stampings each having a straight body portion 2O ending in right angular fianges 21 bolted to the spars 14 and 15 as by Each of the stampingsare formed with triangular openings 29 to give them a girder er truss formation and to make them as light as possible. The upper and the .low-er edges of the three stampings 28, 20 and 27 are curved to form'the desired camber, that is, to give the desired shape to the top and bottom surfaces of the wing, which surfaces are covered as is customary, with a fabric material 30.

Secured over the curved edges of the foreand-aft ribs is a thin metal plate 31 at the front,l this passing over the pointed ends of brackets 28 while a similar plate 32 engages in like manner the rear edge of the wing passing over the curved and rather sharp rear portions of the back brackets 27. The wing frame further includes a horizontally disposed flat steel plate 33 which is bolted to a lug 35 extending inwardly from the casting 11 between the lugs 18 and also to a. similar lug' 36 extending inwardly from the outer casting 12. This horizontal plate or spar 33 fits within a recess 37 in the center of the bottom of each larger central stamping or casting and is riveted, bolted or otherwise secured to each ofthe lugs 39 which extend horizontally from the web portions 20. The ends of the spars 14 and 15 fit snugly in the kerfs' 19 of each end `piece giving greater rigidity to the wings. By forming the spars of the frame of the wing of bars of steel or some other very strong material and making Vthe ribs of aluminum stampings, flanged so as to be bolted to the continuousbars, I produce a frame having `great strength combined with lightness, and all of the elements can easily be manufactured at very low cost and can be readily assembled to form the complete frame.

The two wings are secured to the fuselage 40 in the mannerillustrated in Figure 3.

Bolted to the top of the fuselage 40 is a seat 42, which is a sturdy plate as it must be of suflicient strength to connect the two wings when they are removed from the fuselage as a unit, in which case the screws 43 are removed, these being the only connections between the fuselage and the seat. The two inner or near castings 11 of the wing skeleton are formed with ears 45 which are detachably secured to the seat 42 as by the screws 46 which are removed whenever it is desired to take one wing off while leaving the other on. A detachable metal cover 47 is secured in any suitable manner over the seat, entirely covering the screws 43 and 46 and preferably snugly abutting the castings 11 and the metal binding strips` 48 which are secured to the upper faces of the web of the castings 11 as by the small screws indicated. The wings are braced by diagonally extending tie rods 50 which are secured at their upper ends to some central point on one of the spars, either l4, 15 or 33, preferably the latter. The lower ends of these tie rods are adjustablv secured to some relatively fixed portion of the airplane but the connection between the tie rod and the wing is permanent, therefore by adjusting the positions of the lower ends of the tie rods 50.y the dihedral angle formed by the wings can be varied as much as ten degrees, the resilience of the wings permitting this amount of adjustment.

It is to-be noted that the above described manner of mounting the wings on the fuselage permits removal of the wings, either both together or separately. By unscrewing the bolts 43, after removing the cover 47 and unfastening the tie rods 50, the seat 42 with the two wings attached thereto may be removed as a unit. If it is desired to remove only one of the wings, this can be done without disturbing the other wing by unscrewing the fastening means 46 which pass thru the ears 45 and into the seat 42. Y Obviously this manner of supporting and mounting the wings facilitates assembly and renders it easy to disassemble the wings for repairsor replacement, particularly since the wings are quite independent of the motors.

What I claim is:

1. In an airplane, a wing having a frame comprising end members and spars connecting said members and fore-and-aft ribs formed of flanged strips secured to said spars by integral flanges extending from the strips, said spars and strips being rectangular in cross section and of equal height at their intersections.

2. In an airplane, a wing frame comprising metal end castings and longitudinal rolled metal ribs connecting said castings, transverse ribs formed of pairs of strips having integral flanged ends bolted to said longitudinal ribs, said strips being arranged back to back with their flanges oppositely extending to present the cross section of an I-beam.

3. In an airplane, a wing Comprising end members and longitudinal ribs connecting said members, transverse ribs formed of flanged strips bolted to said longituidinal ribs, angular strips arranged back to back and bolted thru their alined flanges to an outer horizontal rib, curved plates of light gage secured over the forward and trailing edges of said angular strips, and a fabric covering the frame.

4. In an airplane, a longitudinal seat dctachably secured to the fuselage, and wings independently detachably secured to said seat, whereby the two wings with the connecting seat may be removed as a unit, or when desired eitherwing may be separately removed without disturbing the remaining wing or the seat.

5. In an airplane, a fore-and-aft extending seat detachably secured to the top of the fuselage, and wings each provided with an inner end member having perforated ears screw bolted to said seat, whereby the two wings with the connecting seat may be removed as a unit, or when desired either wing may be separately removed without disturbing the remaining wing or the seat.

6. In an airplane, a longitudinal seat dei' tachably secured to the top of the fuselage,

. a pair of wings independently bolted to said seat, and'tie rods connected at their upper ends to said wings and supported at their lower ends for vertical end adjustment with respect to the fuselage, whereby the dihedral angle formed by the wings may be varied as required.

7. An airplane wing rib member consisting of a body, two integral angulaiflanges adapted to engage parallel spars, and a third, integral, angularly extending flange spaced between the first mentioned flanges and adapted to engage a spar between said parallel spars, said construction permitting the use of sheet metal which can be stamped and bent to form the flanges.

8. rlhe device of claim 7 in which all three of the flanges extend in the same direction from the body.

9. An I-beam member which can be formed by a stamping operation, consisting of two channel shaped pieces arranged back tol back and each having a central lug extending at a right angle to the web of the channel and in a plane at right angles to the parallel planes of the flanges of the channel, whereby the flanges may be secured to parallel members to space and strengthen them,

and the lugs may be secured to a third member spaced from and parallel to said parallel members.

10. The device of claim 9 in which the lugs are struck from the body or web of the channel in such fashion as to leave a recess in the web which may receive the third member.

11. In an airplane Wing having an envelope, two parallel longitudinal spars of llat metal strips, said strips having their wide faces vertical and their horizontal narrow faces being adapted to support the envelope of the wing, a third flat metal strip between the spars with its wide faces horizontal, means located entirely between the spars for joining the third strip to the spars, and additional means lying entirely to one sid-e of both spars for supporting the front edge of the envelope.

12. In an airplane, a wing frame comprising two end members, a plurality of longitudinal ribs and a plurality of cross ribs, perforated ears on each end member corresponding in number to the number of longitudinal ribs, said longitudinal ribs being flat and rectangular in cross section and perforated at each end for connection with said perforated ears, one of said longitudinal ribs lying in the plane of the wing and other longitudinal ribs being normal to the said plane.

13. A wing frame as defined in claim 12 characterized by the one longitudinal rib in the plane of the wing being substantially in the middle and in the lower surface of the wing, and the said other ribs normal to the plane ofthe wing being of different widths so as to correspond to the width of the wing at their various locations.

14. In an airplane, a wing frame comprising two side longitudinal ribs lying in a plane normal to the plane of the wing, one middle longitudinal rib lying in the plane of the wing, a plurality of transverse ribs between the two side ribs and also being in planes normal to the plane of the wing, flanges at the ends of said transverse ribs for connection to the side ribs, notches in the lower edges near the center of said transverse ribs to receive the longitudinal middle rib, perforated ears on the transverse ribs adjacent the said notches for connection to the middle longitudinal ribs.

15. In an airplane, a wing frame comprising three spaced longitudinal ribs between two end pieces, a plurality of cross ribs, a front plate and a tail plate each of substantially U-shaped cross section, each cross rib consisting of three parts namely a front or nose, a middle or main part and a tail part, flanges at each end of the main part, flanges at the rear end of the nose and at the front end of the tail, said flanges of the nose and tail connected respectively with the front and rear end flanges of the main part, a longitudinal rib between each pair of connected flanges, notches in the bottom edge of each main part to receive the third longitudinal rib, a perforated lug adjacent each notch for connecting the main part of the cross rib to the longitudinal rib, the front plate fitting over the alined noses and connected at each end to an end piece, the tail plate tting over the alined tail parts and also connected at each end to an end plate.

16. A Wing frame as defined in claim 15 wherein each main part, nose part and tail part of a cross rib consists of two pieces of metal back to back, each flange being formed by the bending of the end of its piece at right angles to the axis of the piece.

17. In a wing frame having spaced longitudinal ribs with perforated ends, an end member having correspondingly spaced ears perforated toregister with the perforations in said ends, a lrerf at the base of an ear, said kerf being so located as to snugly fit over the tip of a rib when said rib and said ear are bolted in place.

18. In a wing frame having longitudinal ribs or spars, two spaced end members secured to the ends of said spars by means of opposed ears, said ears being integral with the end members, two of said ears being in vertical planes, a; kerf at the base of each of said two ears in each of which snugly lits the tip of a. spar, the inner end member being provided with additional means for detachably securing the wing to the fuselage, said additional means extending beyond the wing frame.

19. In a wing frame as defined in claim 18, said spars being composed of flat strips of metal, the plane of two of said spars being normal to the pla-ne of the wing to fit with the said vertical ears, and the plane of one being parallel to the plane of the wing and a horizontal ear on each end member for connection to said last mentioned strip.

In testimony whereof I atlix my signature.

LEWIS J TETLOW. 

